A conventional laser treatment apparatus for performing photocoagulation treatment or the like by irradiating a laser beam to a fundus is configured to irradiate a laser beam as a single spot to an affected part of a patient's eye. For changing a spot position of the laser beam, an operator moves a delivery optical system for delivering the laser beam or moves a reflection mirror by operation of a manipulator to reflect the laser beam toward the eye (for example, see JP 2002-224154 A).
Furthermore, there has been proposed another apparatus using a scanner to cause a single spot of a laser beam scan in a predetermined pattern instead of moving the reflection mirror by the operator (for example, WO 2007/035855 A2 and JP 2008-504075 T2).
However, in the conventional apparatus in JP 2002-224154 A, in the case where a laser beam is to be irradiated to many affected parts, such as retinal photocoagulation, the operator has to move the delivery optical system or the reflection mirror every time an irradiation point of the laser beam is changed. This operation is troublesome and takes a long treatment time.
The apparatus utilizing the scanner can reduce the labor of the operator. However, this apparatus moves a single spot and therefore takes a long treatment time when a laser irradiation time at each spot position is set to be equal to that in JP 2002-224154 A. This results in an increased burden on a patient. If the laser irradiation time at each spot position is shortened and instead output power of the laser beam is increased, the following problems may be caused: operator's past experience could not be fully utilized and thus a coagulation spot could not be appropriately formed; the increased output power in a short irradiation time is liable to cause pain in a patient's eye; and bleeding easily occurs.